The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-03-18
THE EGG CARNIVAL:"
Or Miss Matilda's Preparations for
Easter Sunday.


AS Easter is at hand, | am reminded
of a somewhat amusing event, in
which | was an actor when / was a
boy, and which think [ will describe
somewhat in detail. [ lived in the
country, in what was called "good
neighborhood." The people in it were,
the majority of them at least, we'll
meaning and industrious, working
hard on their farms during the week
and going religiously to church every
Sunday.
1t had become custom in the town
to observe Easter with rather more of
religious ceremony than is the practice
III most rural neighborhoods. There
was a little white frame church to
which most of the families for miles
around came on Easter Sunday for a
special service of praise and prayer.
1t was always prettily decorated, and
our country choir sang its very best,
and the good rector gave one of his
most carefully-prepared sermons.
After church we all went home in
the most decorous manner, and there
partook of dinner in which eggs APP
peared, served in every conceivable
way. But we boys had but little APP
petite for them, for we were generally
surfeited with eggs before Easter Sun
day dawned.
1t was the custom for all the bows in
the neighborhood to assemble at some
appointed place in the woods on the
Saturday night before Easter, and
there cook and eat eggs. How the Gus
tom originated | don't know, and now
| question somewhat whether it was
quite judiciOus in our parents to allow
It, Nevertheless, the consent of the
parents was generally given, and the
place selected for eating our eggs was
some wild and little frequented local
ity, with surroundings suggestive of
wild beasts and robbers and robbers
caves, for some of lis had the misfor-
tune to read dime novels, and our
youthful imag1nations were foolishlv
excited thereby.
These egg-eating assemblies were,
however, occasions of mirth and enter
tainmont of the most innocent kind.
Each boy brought from ten to a dozen
eggs, and I've no doubt that some of
us imperilled our digestive organs by
trying to eat every egg we brought.
Sklllets were taken with us for irving
and poaching purposes, and pots for
boiling. We also, remember, wrapped
eggs in pieces of wet brown paper,
and roasted them in the Goals of our
roaring fire, thereby rendering them, |
am sure, unfit for any body to eat.
There was about these affairs a fascin-
ating flavor of freedom that made the
contents of frying-pan and pots and
brown paper sweet to our tastes.
1t is of my last participation in one of
these egg-eating revels that | write. |
was then fifteen years old. My brother
jeff was younger, Mother had given
lis each dozen eggs, and father had
said we might remain out until ten
o'clock. The boys assembled in LARGE
numbers that night jeff and carried
our eggs, salt, pepper, butter and
crackers in an iron dinner-pot, de-
signed for use after we reached the
scene of the feast. We all met at a
place in the woods known as Downev's
Forks, so called because the main road
here branched out in several direc-
tionS.
An exceedingly acrimonious and
thoroughly disagreeable old woman,
named Miss Matilda Downey, lived on
fine farm near the forks of the road.
Miss Matilda had o mortal antipathv
to boys. An unreasonable and unjust
hatred it was, am sure, for the bows
in our neighborhood, so far as | know.
had never done her any harm, but had,
indeed, been of use to her in various
ways. Gratitude was not one of Miss
Matilda'S few virtues. She was never
known to be grateful for any thing.
Once, when we boys had assembled
to the number of ten and chopped her
winter fire-wood for her, instead of
giving us supper, she handed each of
us piece of stale bread and the eighth
part of a thin, small dried-apple pie,
with the remark that she WANT goin'
to have her kitchen all cluttered up bv
passed. of dirty boys"
Wood-choppings were frequent in
the neighborhood, even among well-to-
do people, and they always ended with
nice supper and party in the even
ing, to which all the girls came, if they
had not already met and spent the day
quilting or sewing carpet rags.
Miss Matilda was a Well-to-do wom-
an, with nice house, and had invited
rs to come and chop her wood for her.
But, " she said, ''boys ought to think
OF something besides stufin' them
selves and goin' to play-parties.
OF course we were indignant, and did
what we ought not to have done, and
that was, we made a small-a very
small-heap of our pie and bread. and
left it on Miss Downey's doorstep. For
this she never forgave us, although
she did not hesitate at any time to
call on some one of us when she want
ed favor done. 1t was after dark
when we boys, twenty-eight in num-
Der, passed Miss Matilda's home on the
night OF our egg-eating party.
Her barn stood near the read, and